Last May, Governor Hogan announced the Excel Maryland Initiative at the inaugural Maryland Business Summit in front of more than 700 business, education, and community leaders in the state. The initiative's goal is lofty – to launch a comprehensive, statewide economic development strategy focused on developing new collaborative techniques to accelerate growth in the life sciences and cybersecurity industries.

With more than 35 incubators and research parks and a number one ranking in STEM job concentration, Maryland is fertile ground for entrepreneurs in life sciences and cybersecurity, industries where Maryland already leads. Excel Maryland, the latest tool in the state's toolbox, is designed to propel these industries to even greater heights.

MDBizNews sat down with a few local businesses that are thriving in the state's cybersecurity sector and giving the Commerce team plenty to brag about at the upcoming RSA Conference.

College Park-based Immuta serves algorithm-driven enterprises in order to accelerate their development and control machine learning, as well as other advanced analytics. They are, in essence, a data management company that can provide fast and personalized data access to clients that will improve creation, deployment, and auditability of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Immuta's team has deep Maryland roots – many built their IT careers in the state and a number are proud Terp alumni. Steve Touw, chief technology officer for Immuta, said the company has found immense value in the resources here in Maryland.

"With proximity to the nation's capital, Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland's full of amazing opportunities, which is why we're so excited to call the 'Old Line State' our home," said Touw. "We've found an incredible talent pool here with deep experience in technology and a real passion for data privacy."

Customers can use Immuta's software platform to connect to any information storage technology, using any tool, while enforcing the strictest privacy controls. This allows data science programs to easily and quickly turn their data into insight. According to the company, this is a groundbreaking platform that has gone untapped by their competitors.

"We're made up of data scientists, software developers and lawyers with combined decades of experience helping large organizations move at the speed of A.I.," said Touw. "By drawing on our incredibly unique backgrounds, our team has built a platform like no other — allowing for the fastest, most reliable access to data and data policy enforcement, all in one intuitive product."

The future looks bright for Immuta as more and more organizations invest in powerful data science tools while governments continue to enact stricter regulations, a challenge that the company is eager to take on.

"Data science is becoming more important, but also much harder in practice," said Touw. "Immuta allows companies to easily adapt to both of these major trends — making better use of their data while complying with any data regulation."